By Paul Lathrop
Contributing Editor
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf declared his support for three “gun safety” points on his official Twitter account on Monday.
In his tweet, Governor Wolf proposes three restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms and calls them “common sense.” But is it that, or nonsense? His three major contentions are:
Kids shouldn’t be able to get ahold of guns.
Governor, at what age is someone a “kid”? Is a two-year-old a kid? Almost certainly. A 10-year-old? I know 10-year-old children that are very responsible with firearms. 16 years old? I know a sixteen-year-old who is a very fast and accurate shot with a handgun and is incredibly mature.
Also, this smells like a restriction on the whole state even if no “kids” are in the household.
Someone who poses a threat to themselves or others shouldn’t have a gun right now.
This has the earmarks of a Red Flag Law. If someone is dangerous to themselves or others, it is already the law that they can be detained and put into treatment against their will. Wolf is proposing that if someone is dangerous to themselves or others, authorities should take away their firearms. That leaves cars, trucks, gasoline cans, machetes, and trucks filled with fertilizer and diesel fuel at their disposal while they freely roam the streets, critics would argue.
Every gun purchase should involve a background check
This is Wolf’s argument for a so-called “universal background check.” Under Wolf’s scenario, law-abiding citizens would be unable to sell a gun to a relative.
A gun owner would not be able to let a neighbor try his/her handgun when they are going to the range. Depending on what the proposed law defines as a “transfer,” a gun owner might not even be able to hand a firearm to someone else at a shooting range.
